St. John Parish flood maps set to take effect in November

New flood risk maps for St. John the Baptist Parish that could change flood insurance rates for residents and businesses will take effect Nov. 4.

Chuck Cook / The Times-PicayuneFEMA spokesman Ronnie Simpson in 2008.

FEMA, the federal agency that runs the National Flood Insurance Program, is holding a series of public meetings for residents starting Wednesday at the St. John library in LaPlace. Other meetings will be held on June 23 and June 30 at the LaPlace library, and at the West Bank Community Center in Edgard on July 1. All meetings will be held from 6 p.m to 8 p.m.

Flood insurance specialists will be on hand to meet with residents individually to discuss their situations.

"We're not going to be up there with a PowerPoint presentation. We're going to be meeting with people one on one," FEMA spokesman Ronnie Simpson said.

For current property owners, the meetings will give residents who don't have flood insurance a chance to see the changes in advance and decide whether they want to buy the insurance under the current maps or wait. Those who have a policy in place by Nov. 4 will be grandfathered into the current flood zone, Simpson said.

Parish President Natalie Robottom told the Parish Council on Tuesday that the parish is sending out notices in parish utility bills to residents whose flood zones might change. She also said information about hurricane preparedness would be addressed during the meeting.

Parish officials could not be reached for comment Thursday about the number of letters sent out or to discuss the pending changes in the flood zone.

Residents who cannot attend the meetings or who don't have Internet access can call the Louisiana Mapping Project at 866.751.3989.

Both St. Charles and St. John parishes declined to adopt advisory flood elevations in 2009. St. John homebuilders argued that the elevations weren't based on scientific data. The St. Charles Council put off adopting the new elevations because they would have caused massive flood insurance rate increases in parts of the parish's west bank, particularly the Bayou Gauche area because the Sunset Drainage District levees aren't high enough to be recognized by the insurance program.

Simpson said the Nov. 4 deadline doesn't apply to St. Charles and four other parishes where levee construction is under way. The others are Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemine and St. Bernard parishes.

"We're going to look at them again after the levees are finished," he said.